Another Shore
by DredHedRed
Summary: Jacob and Bella shared an intense moment before the battle with Victoria and her army of newborns. To what extent and on what level was that battle being fought? The original characters belong to S. Meyer. No copyright infringement is intended.


**Another Shore**

**Chapter 1 – The Kiss**

_Disclaimer: Stephenie Meyer created the world of Twilight – I just have fun playing with the characters. There are a few lines of dialogue from "Eclipse" but no copyright infringement is intended. As I am English, British spellings are used throughout. Please review!_

**Jacob**

"Will you kiss me Jacob?"

The words I'd been waiting a lifetime to hear! Bella stood before me raging with the pain of having to make a choice; I could see the pain of choosing in her deep chocolate eyes and still I felt my strong heart falter and surge inside my chest with joy. She wanted me.

"Kiss me, Jacob. Kiss me, and then come back."

I knew this was another game of hers; Bella liked to have me right where she wanted me. She wanted me _and_ Edward and the thought of having to make the choice to lose one of us was too much for my poor selfish Bella. But I needed her with every sinew of my body; every beat of my feverish heart sang a song of loving her, why couldn't she see that? Why choose eternal unlife and the instinct to drain everyone she ever loved over living a full and happy life here with me?

_I'm alive!! I'll prove it, show her how much I need her, how much I can give her, how much she loves me even if she doesn't realise. How dare that filthy, bloodsucking parasite steal her from me! She should have been mine!_

I strode over to her and caught her trembling face in my hands, crushing my mouth over hers, wanting to taste victory: Bella wanted _me_ after all! I wanted to show her my passion, my strongly burning life and the rightness in our belonging to each other; I would show her how much I loved her and prove to her that she loved me too.

Yet there she stood as if she had already had the life and joy sucked out of her. Bella stood there limp and passive, her hands hung awkwardly at her side with fingers curling and clenching, with the skin stretched tightly over white knuckles – was _this_ what she summoned me back for? Her lips were soft and unmoving, allowing me to kiss her but only suffering my passion and refusing to allow herself to dive deep into the well of feeling she had for me out of some sort of loyalty to that leech. I wound my fingers deep into her hair, dragging her face tighter to me and grabbed hold of her shoulder to shake some life into her! No response as I pulled her body tight against my chest. He really had done a number on her.

_C'mon Bella, where are you? You're in there somewhere, I know it!_

I found her wrist and pulled her arm up around my neck and kissed her deeper, trying to bring her back to life, back to here, back to me. I let go of her wrist and wrapped my hand around her tiny waist and pulled her tighter still against me, but never tightly enough, never close enough... but surely close enough for her to feel my hardness pressing against her ever more urgently as the moments passed.

Bella was not returning my kiss, not yet, so I let go of her lips and kissed along the smooth edge of her jaw and down the cool sweetness of her neck. Damn, she smelled good! Like honey and clouds and spring flowers all mixed up with something deeper, something musky, salty, something _mouthwatering_. She wanted me too, her scent becoming stronger and more inviting every second, so much that I could taste it. I let go of her hair and pulled her other arm up around my neck and circled her waist with both arms, savouring the moment. _She is mine right here, right now, and I will never let her go._

Bella's deepening scent was exciting me more and more with every passing moment. I just wanted her to feel and admit to herself just how much she wanted me, how much her body needed me right now, even if it was against her conscious judgement. We belonged together, our bodies meshing and pulsing against each other, our arousal thickening and colouring the air that I breathed. _Why won't she let herself feel this... to feel alive?_

I brushed my lips along her neck noticing the goose bumps rising on her skin from the heat rising from my breath and gently nuzzled her earlobe.

"You can do better than this, Bella." My voice reduced to a husky whisper by my desire for her.

"You're over-thinking it." Her earlobe was in between my teeth and I breathed softly in her ear.

"That's right, for once just let yourself feel what you feel."

Bella started to shake her head, as if by doing that she could deny to herself what was coursing through her body and soul right now. I wouldn't let her lose this moment so I wound my fingers back through her hair to stop her. Even now, with her body burning for me so strongly that I could _taste _her desire, she would deny how she felt about me! I couldn't, I _wouldn't _let her get away so easily, I would fight for her in every way I knew how. And if that meant using the only thing left to me, well so be it.

"Are you sure you want me to come back? Or did you really want me to die?"

A fierce light suddenly flickered deep in Bella's eyes and she roughly grabbed at the roots of my hair. That's more like it! There she is, my Bella. _Mine._

**Jacob's Vision**

The angry moment dissolved along with the background presence of Seth and the leech, and I felt myself drifting through space, the colours running and merging with my heated breath and Bella's soft moans...

...her naked body stretched out small and pale beneath me, glowing softly in the moonlight, her lustrous hair rippling out around her face and fanning out onto the forest floor with a few stray locks starred with leaves draping down her throat and resting between her small and beautiful breasts. Her eyes were closed and dark lashes kissed her cheek with pleasure as the colour rose in her cheeks with every pulse, with every thrust. Her arms around my neck, her fingers deeply entwined in my hair, her moistened lips parting and murmuring my name...

"Jacob, my Jacob..."

I reached down to stroke her face and Bella's eyes danced open, her gaze unfocused with bliss before she sees me.

"I love you Jacob."

...and I am flying.

The feeling that rippled through every muscle and every sinew was so strong and undeniable, as if I was going to phase right there, right then, and I stopped my rhythm and breathed hard, afraid of hurting her.

"Jacob, Jacob _look_ at me..." Bella pleaded as her hands reached up to touch my face.

I snapped my eyes open – I hadn't even realised I had closed them and now I was angry with myself for losing precious seconds of drinking in Bella's naked body so close to mine, surrounding me, _loving_ me.

"You won't hurt me," Bella sighed, "I won't let you."

And in that moment I knew that she was right. There is nothing in the world that could make me hurt this woman, my reason for breathing. I looked deep into her eyes and found love looking back at me. Bella rocked her hips and again I was lost deep inside of heaven. I let my desire ripple through me burning away my crippling fear and let my hips rock against her strongly and more urgently now. Bella's hands twisted around the roots of my hair and I let her pull my face to hers, crushing her parted lips with kisses as the rhythm of the tempest built between us.

...

Moments in a life strongly lived, full of heat and light, dirt, rain and love.

Bella sweating hard, moaning as another contraction surges through her shaking body, chanting soothing mantras to the child waiting to be born. Triumphant screams as the child emerges from her body into this bright life. My son. _Our_ child. Glistening eyes as mother and son see each other for the first time; an old soul come newly into fresh life meeting the keeper of the heart that brought blood and life to his body. My heart surges with love, with pride, with utter awe as I enfold them both in my embrace.

...

Time passes, meaning something as it does. Two small forms dart into the forest, their black heads disappearing into the deep green shadows along with their laughter. Bella, a mother twice over now, the lines of love and laughter showing around her eyes and her body strengthened by motherly curves tucked up tightly against my side.

...

The comfort of familiarity cocooning us in time, and as our bodies age and our children grow and choose their own loves and their own paths the love between us has only grown into something more precious than time. Passion still kindles my heart whenever I look deep into her eyes, but now it is patient and languid rather than fierce and all consuming. We have all the time left to us to lie together, breathe together and fall into one another.

Limbs entwined we begin the long, slow fall into one another's joy.

...

It took me a moment or two to realise that Bella's lips had stopped moving and that she was still within my embrace, only slowly becoming aware that we were standing in the clearing what felt like a lifetime ago. The visions faded, but the moment between us had not yet passed, was not yet done with me. I felt the flow of another time slowly stop and I floated away from the vision, feeling the separation pull between me and Bella as I found my sense of here and now.

The moments passed and the pale morning light seeped through my eyelids; the realisation only slowly dawning on me that I had been..._dreaming_. My mind had run away with me, showing me a vision of heaven with Bella.

_Damn it! I need to focus on killing filthy, fucking leeches, not being all starry eyed over a girl that keeps on breaking my heart. Damn you Bella. I need to put my faith in the only things I can trust right now; claws, teeth, muscle, sinew, not my heart. __Never my heart._

But I didn't want to pull away, didn't want to lose forever this moment, this lifetime that we had shared. I looked deep into Bella's eyes, unsure of what I would find there, only to see my face reflected in the blackened circles, her eyes glinting with unshed tears, and love. _And_ _love. _

"Jake... I...I... How c-come I never noticed before?" Bella's voice was soft and raw, and her face was glowing like a fire had been lit within her body and was now shining through her skin.

"I love you Jacob... I don't know what this all means, where my head's at, but I _felt _you here in my chest, deep where nothing ever touches." Bella clutched at her heart. "Come back to me Jake. I can't lose you!" She looked up at me with wide, shining eyes and trembling lips. "I love you."

My heart rose up once again and hammered joy through my veins as I felt my chest widen and my shoulders relax, growing taller still as I realised that Bella had journeyed with me through the vision of a life and love shared and was still with me now, still here in my arms and looking up at me with wet eyelashes and longing in her face.

This was all I needed to know. She loved me and she was mine. We were meant to be together, there was now no doubt in her mind, and I had journeyed to the far shore of my life to find her there still loving me despite the years, still holding my heart in her hand. _Bella. _Every beat of my heart sang of victory and utter devotion to the woman within my arms. And I understood then that she was my whole world, my only reason for breathing and the reason the wolf howled deep in my blood. _Mine. Forever. _

_So this is what it's all about? _ I understood in a flash of blinding colour and a moment of complete clarity that **she **was the one, that there would never be another who could make my blood sing and my soul rejoice. _So this is what it's like to love someone so completely without a whisper or shadow of doubt. _

_This is what it's like to imprint._

_Why did this imprinting never happen with us before? Is it because she never __**really**__ looked at me before now? Did something change because I made her kiss me? Are there any rules to this damn thing at all?? _

I realised that the answers would have to come later, as right then I had urgent and violent business to attend to, sadly even more urgent than the need to crush Bella's body to mine and kiss her lips again and again and hear her sigh my name.

"Ahh Bella..."I sighed, my lips caressing the words. "I've always loved you."

Only moments had passed, but my life had changed course forever, the river of my life now running clear before me. I untangled my hands from Bella's hair and gently cupped her blushing face as I gently laid my lips to hers and whispered to her in between brushing her face with gentle kisses.

"I love you Bella. And now, at last, you know that you love me too. We belong together Bells. You're the other half of me and I complete you."

After one last lingering and silky soft kiss I stepped back from her and prepared to fight to the death, for war. On how many levels and with which one of those damn leeches that fight would come to was yet unsure.

_You don't fight fair huh Edward? I'll show you just how fucking fair I can be now that I know for sure she's mine._

My eyes fixed on her widening gaze as I let the wolf ripple through my human form, taking strength from her loving all of me, seeing the beast within and never showing fear. _My Bella. Mine._

I turned and bounded into the forest gloom with a new reason to live.


End file.
